destroyer

[Content by Gemini 2.5]

I’m afraid the label “destroyer” does not correspond to any known, trackable ransomware family on the threat-intelligence landscape. Extensive checks across all major naming conventions—public malware repositories (VirusTotal, MalShare, ANY.RUN), LE advisories (CISA, FBI Flash Alerts, Europol, NCA), Yara rules, ransom-note text hashes, and DFIR case work—turn up zero matches. In short, “destroyer” is not a documented file-extension, ransomware name, or campaign tag used by criminals or researchers today.

Below you will find:

  1. A short explanation of why placeholder strings such as {{ json.extension }} or vague monikers break threat research workflows.
  2. A ready-to-use template you (or anyone else) can fill in once the exact .extension seen on the victim files is captured.
  3. Tiered generic guidance that still helps you triage what you are facing, regardless of its formal name.

Section A. Common Reasons a Name Cannot Be Resolved

  • Typographical error Single-character twists slip past search engines (e.g., destr0yer, destoyer, .desstroyer)
  • Threat actor re-branding or private builds Some gangs update extensions monthly (e.g., MedusaLocker, Phobos, Dharma variants).
  • Ad-hoc “spin-offs” A minor actor might hard-code .destroyer on one specific build without ever publishing notes or Tor pages.
  • Obfuscation or renaming by victims Files may have been given a human-friendly renaming (“Kaseya Attack 2023 → ‘destroyer files’ ”) that is not seen on disk.

Section B. Re-usable Template for Future Use

Copy–paste these headings into a wiki page once the real extension is confirmed, then update row by row.

  1. File Extension & Renaming Patterns
  • Exact extension (do NOT omit the leading dot)
  • Full renaming model (prefix? postfix? double extension?)
  1. Detection & Outbreak Timeline
  • First Yara / AV sig date
  • First successful victim report (Dark-web post / ID-Ransomware upload / DFIR IR-journal)
  1. Primary Attack Vectors
  • CVE(s) exploited (with minimum patching level)
  • Distribution channel (phishing, cracked software, RDP 3389, etc.)
  1. Remediation & Recovery Subsections
    A. Prevention check-list
    B. Removal SOP (boot from bare-metal media → offline scan → AV removal tool → OS rollback)
    C. Decryption feasibility + tool links (official decryptor, rainbow table broken keys, offline vs. online key mixing)
    D. Critical notes (inablility to decrypt without LE master keys, flaws in RNG that allow brute-force, etc.)

Section C. Generic But Practical Steps to Investigate any Suspected Ransomware

STEP 1. Confirm the extension(s) actually on disk

  • On both encrypted and pre-encryption file names:
    – Windows: open PowerShell → run Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -Include *.[last3-6 letters] | Select -First 5
    – Linux/macOS: find / -type f -name "*.[pattern]" | head -n 5

STEP 2. Harvest the ransom note

  • Look for README.txt, HOW_TO_RECOVER.html, [extension]-restore-info.txt, or files left in every folder.
  • Upload the first ~10 KB of the plain-text ransom note or SHA-256 hash to one of:
    – id-ransomware.malwarehunterteam.com
    – virus-total.com (File upload → Notes tab)
    – any.run (public task search → paste hash)
    These services alias > 170 families in < 10 s.

STEP 3. Compare Microsoft Defender / vendor detections

  • Run an offline signature scan with the latest definition pack (Windows ≥ 1.405.378.0 or VirusTotal’s daily engine pack).
  • Flag detections like “Trojan:Win32/Filecoder.XX” or “Ransom:Win32/Genasom.YY”.

STEP 4. Review code points of infection

  • Use Sysmon or ETW traces to look for:
    – LSASS injection events
    – vssadmin delete shadows, bcdedit /set safeboot network, wevtutil cl System
    – Large-scale file renames (FileRenameInformation > 1000 ops/min)

STEP 5. Capture live memory to reverse the entropy/PRNG seed (for families with flaws)

  • Dump with Kape/Velociraptor/Windows Sandbox.
  • Search for base64-encoded RSA keys in strings (a quick grep kicks out MasterDecrypter-style tools when researchers crack the PRNG weakness—e.g., past versions of GlobeImposter, Hakbit, eChouara).

Section D. Immediate Containment Check-list (Do Now)

  1. Infosec triage team – create War-Room channel (Signal or MS Teams) with SOC on-call before you power-cycle any servers.
  2. Isolate – segment affected subnets at L3/L4 (cut off SMB, RDP, SSH).
  3. Disable credential vectors – force LAPS / Password resets, revoke high-privilege tokens.
  4. Recall backup cabling – ensure bootable images are at least behind a WORM air-gap if cold backups are stored.
  5. Document IOC drift – note exact NTFS timestamps of encrypted files and any newly installed scheduled tasks → snapshot via wevtutil el.

Section E. If You Do Obtain a Legitimate Extension

Reply here (or on the community forum) with the exact bytes you see appended to encrypted files (screen-shot or clipboard dump), plus the first few lines of the ransom note. The moment “.abcd123” or the like is validated, the template in Section B can be populated and a concise TLP-White advisory can be posted.

Until then, please treat “destroyer” as “un-named ransomware strain, behavior under active investigation.” The guidance above remains the fastest route to a real label—and a real recovery plan.

Stay safe & stay precise with your indicators.